He looked perplexed. “You wanna see it, right?”
“Yeah, but … oh!” She suddenly recalled the clothing she'd found on the ground by the garage, pointing out, “That's why I found your shirt and boots outside! You can't wear clothes as a wolf, can you?”
Caleb smirked. “Nope. So if I do this, you might get the full view when I turn back.”
“Only if I'm looking,” she countered, then gave a teasing smirk. “And I might just do that.”
“Oh, now you wanna tease me. Okay, I'll play.”
At that, his muscles tensed, and the transformation was swift, his form mystically changing from human to wolf in the space of a few seconds.
Despite knowing what he was now, Emily still couldn't believe her widened eyes, staring at the large, dark silver wolf he'd become with her mouth agape. Not only was he bigger than the wolves she'd seen in the pack roaming the woods by his house, but his eyes were … glowing.
That was something she definitely hadn't noticed during their first encounter—she only recalled the wolf having brown eyes that were eerily similar to Caleb's.
The Shroud, she thought, recalling the phenomenon that hid supernatural elements from uninformed humans. According to Joslyn, now that Emily believed it existed, she'd see these types of things for the rest of her life. So if she ever happened upon a random wolf with glowing eyes, she'd know the truth about what it was.
But Caleb didn't give her the chance to consider much else, letting a playful bark as he hopped onto the bed—and onto her.
Gasping, Emily fell back against the mattress, squealing when he licked her cheek.
Clutching his nape in both hands before he could repeat the action, she pushed and giggled the words, “Get off ya goon!”
Caleb yelped, nuzzling her neck in a ticklish manner that had her breathlessly shrieking.
“Fine, you asked for it!” she rasped, retaliating by reaching to his ear where she started to scratch—and his hind leg went crazy.
At the sight of it, Emily erupted with laughter, and her mirth only redoubled when he grunted in disapproval, ears flattening as he settled on the mattress next to her.
“Don't grunt at me! You get whatcha give!” she snickered, working to sit up and catch her breath.
Caleb let a low woof in response.
“Is that supposed to be wolfy-speak for whatever you say, Emily?”
He yelped, panting with a happy smile—and Emily realized she was actually conversing with a wolf. This is just so … surreal.
“You can really understand everything I'm saying?”
His head bobbed in a nod.
Emily couldn't get over it.
Sitting right next to her was a man who'd taken the shape of a canine. She thought she'd come to terms with the idea, but actually seeing it was a different story altogether.
And again, she wondered how this kind of thing could exist?
She would've asked, but Caleb couldn't answer just then, and besides, Nacho's sudden whimpering at the door distracted them both.
Caleb's ears perked up, and he hopped off the bed. Trotting to the door, the big canine stood on his hind legs and, as if he'd done so a thousand times, swiped both paws against the knob in opposite directions to unlatch it.
The door creaked open, and Nacho pushed through, happily barking up at the big wolf—and they wasted no time playfully rushing around the room.
It was enough to make Emily wish she'd brought her camera.
Quickly sitting back so she wouldn't get knocked over when they jumped across the bed in their chase, she watched as the canines tumbled onto the floor at the opposite side of the mattress. Caleb was obviously letting the pup get the upper hand, squirming as she climbed on his back and playfully bit his neck.
He also growled when Nacho got too rambunctious, as if telling the pup cool it.
Emily grinned at their interactions, wondering how often Caleb had run through the woods this way, and whether or not he ever socialized with the natural wolves roaming the hills.
Yet her attention was soon drawn away from their play fight and to the nightstand where she spied an object she didn't expect to see.
“Wait a minute, is that my picture?”
Standing, she walked around and grabbed the page of a calendar with the days of November printed on it, then turned it over. Surely enough, there was her bikini shot, and she held the image up so Caleb could see it.
“How did this get here?”
The wolf's ears perked up, and he quickly stood from the floor, grabbing his jeans with his teeth to carry into the bathroom so he could change to normal again. A moment passed, and he returned as himself, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly—or wolfishly?—while admitting, “I ripped it out after you showed it to me.”
Well that was unexpected. “Why?”
Caleb seemed to think the question was strange. “Are you kidding? I was already fighting with myself trying to keep from getting interested in you, and then you go and show me that damned picture.”
Despite his phrasing, he grinned and walked over, slipping his arms around her sides. “So I ripped it out because I didn't wanna let anyone else see it.” As an afterthought, he confessed, “And I was feeling possessive.”
Emily didn't know what to say. All this time, she'd believed he was either unimpressed by the image, or simply hadn't thought it was very flattering. But now that she knew why he'd given her so many mixed signals from the start, she also knew why he wouldn't ask about her photo.
And Emily bit her lip.
“You do like it.”
In wordless confirmation, Caleb was already leaning in to kiss her, the contact of their lips followed by their tongues making her forget what they were talking about altogether. Immediately, the image slipped from her fingertips, drifting down to the floor as she clutched him tight, unable to get enough.
After several, breathtaking moments, he murmured against her lips, “That answer your question?”
Emily shivered, rasping, “Damn does it ever.”
She cracked her eyes open to the sight of an arrogant grin, one that slowly faded before Caleb asked curiously, “But you're not upset I kept it, are you?”
“No,” she shook her head, supposing he was worried his decision to keep the image seemed out of line, and it wasn't hard to imagine some people taking it the wrong way. He'd barely known her when he'd snagged it, and such an act might've been considered on the creepy side of skeevy normally.
But Caleb wasn't human, and though Emily was still trying to adjust to the idea, she knew it meant he had a whole different set of reasons for his actions.
So she wasn't upset, though she did wonder at his need to keep the other mechanics from seeing it, asking, “I'm just curious why you wanted to hide it. Does it bother you that I did a shoot like that?”
“No, the mechanics at the garage are just perverted,” he admitted, “and if one of 'em made a comment I didn't like, it wouldn't be pretty.”
“Oh,” she drew out, reminded of the incident at Blue Moon with Carter—who she'd learned was also a lupine. “So do you get in fights a lot? I mean … because of what you are.”
“Nah,” Caleb shrugged. “We have scuffles because our animal nature is aggressive, but I wouldn't call it straight up fighting. Still, why do you ask? Are you thinking about taking up modeling again?”
“Oh, no,” she rushed out. “I'm never modeling again. Besides, that photo shoot got me into enough trouble.”
“Trouble? What, did your parents disagree or something?”
“No, they were fine with it. It's just that my brother … well … ”
Seeing her hesitance to respond, he curiously insisted, “Tell me.”
Emily exhaled low. It wasn't a pleasant story, and if Caleb would confront his own mechanics for making lewd comments, he might explode when she told him what her brother and his stupid friends had done.
Still, she motioned to the bed in a silent request for him to si
t while hoping to find a way to explain that wouldn't upset them both.
Chapter 21
Caleb groaned when Emily motioned to sit down, knowing he wasn't about to hear anything pleasant. But that was obvious the moment she'd mentioned her brother's involvement.
If Evan had threatened to set her room on fire just to get her game console, there was no telling how he'd reacted to her bikini shoot. So Caleb did as requested, but rather than sitting, he opted to stack up some pillows against the headboard to lounge against, and then pulled Emily down next to him.
She smiled, snuggling against his side, and it felt so damned good he nearly forgot to brace when she finally answered his question.
“So, you know how Evan was an ass to me, right?”
“Uh huh,” he muttered.
“Well, that included a lot of criticism. So one day not long after my photo shoot, I was visiting my mom for the weekend and overheard him telling some of his friends that he thought I was making our family look bad. He also said I was easy because I wanted to do nude shoots, which I did get offered, but I turned them all down.”
Caleb remained silent despite his rising anger over that bit of information alone. Still, he had the sinking feeling the worst was yet to come, and took strides to keep his temper in check while Emily continued.
“So fast forward to a day later. While my mom was out grocery shopping, Evan's friends cornered me in the kitchen and started harassing me about modeling, asking if I liked to strip, and how far I would go. They kept pushing me to … give an example if you know what I mean.”
Emily paused, making Caleb think she was trying to get a hold on her own emotions before adding, “Fortunately, mom forgot her debit card, and came back home in the middle of it all. So I went to the store with her to get away from them, and thankfully never saw them again. But the way they spoke to me, even how they looked at me … .”
Her voice had grown soft, her words drenched in disgust when she finished, “It was horrible. I felt violated, ashamed, and I still remember their names even though it was years ago now.”
The more Emily spoke, the tighter Caleb's grip around her had grown, so infuriated by the thought of those jackasses harassing her that he had to take a deep breath to calm down before asking, “Do you think Evan told them to do that?”
Despite his best efforts, the words came out on a guttural tone, and Emily lifted her head with a curious sapphire gaze, then sighed. “I've upset you.”
“No, Evan and his shitty friends did,” Caleb countered. “So just tell me if you think he had a hand in it.”
“No, I don't,” she returned sincerely. “Evan's friends were skeevy on their own, though I don't doubt they got ideas from his description of me being easy.”
Though he believed her, in that moment, he would've loved nothing more than to tear those assholes apart, grinding his teeth in attempt to suppress his anger. Had Emily reported their harassment? The unforgiving animal in him needed to know.
“Did you tell anyone what they did?”
“Just Joslyn.”
“Why not your parents?” he asked more insistently than intended, realizing he sounded very much so as if he thought her silence was a mistake—and Emily took exception.
“Because nothing happened!”
“The hell nothing happened!” he snapped impulsively. “You were harassed, and what if those assholes did it again? No one would've known to be on the lookout for them!”
“But that's the thing,” Emily rushed out. “Evan vanished for a whole year right after that. We got a few calls, but he never told anyone where he was, and his friends didn't come around anymore. So I had no reason to talk about it, and besides, I was too embarrassed, Caleb.”
Hearing this, Caleb groaned, realizing it wouldn't have been easy for her to point the finger if she'd been humiliated by the experience. Still, the bulk of his anger wasn't at her silence. It was over the fact that those bastards hadn't gotten what they deserved, not to mention the idea of Emily having to handle such a problem alone was intolerable.
So Caleb forced his mind onto something entirely different to keep himself in check, and changed the subject to her brother's disappearance.
“Why did Evan vanish like that?”
“He never said, but not long before then, his real father had looked him up with his girlfriend, Margaret. Evan was getting along with them pretty well, and actually sounded proud when he introduced me.”
She smiled as if thinking it was nice that her brother had managed to meet his father, yet the look faded when she stated next, “But then his dad was abruptly killed in a hunting accident, so I always assumed he just needed to grieve.”
Caleb cringed at her explanation. His own father was tragically taken from him without warning, and that wasn't a fate he would've wished on anyone.
“I'm sorry to hear that,” he related. “I'm also sorry I made it sound like I wasn't happy with how you handled his friends. I didn't mean to upset you.”
“It's okay,” Emily returned, and he found her fingers threading through his in a heartening gesture that proved her sincerity. “I know it's not the most pleasant story anyway, and maybe I should've told someone, but I didn't want to cause an uproar when I barely saw my brother and his friends to begin with. Also, don't forget that when Evan visited, he tried to apologize for being so hard on me. So if you meet him when he comes back, could you try to … be nice?”
“I will for you,” he promised. After all, bad blood or not, Evan was Emily's brother, and maybe an apology wasn't enough to make amends, but it was a good first step.
So if she wanted Caleb to be civil, that's what he'd do.
His response seemed to make her happy as well, a sweet smile lighting her face as she kissed his cheek in gratitude, then rested her head against his shoulder again.
And he would've agreed to almost anything if it kept that smile on her face.
The couple grew quiet afterwards, silently relaxing together just that way, and it felt so good Caleb soon found himself reeling from disbelief. Grogginess was setting in quickly after his trouble sleeping over the weekend, but he fought it just to experience more of Emily's warmth at his side and her scent filling the air.
In the middle of it all, she requested, “Tell me something, Caleb.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you really think the arcade is kiddie, or were you just saying that to avoid going out with me?”
He grinned, admitting, “That was the first time I'd ever turned down a chance to go, otherwise I would've taken you in a heartbeat.”
She snickered. “Then can we go tomorrow evening?”
“Hell yeah,” he agreed, and felt her smiling against his chest.
But his enthusiasm soon diminished. “Shit, wait.”
“What?”
“There's a pack meeting tomorrow night at sundown,” he pointed out.
“Oh yeah,” Emily remarked. “Joslyn told me about that. She said it was about that case, and suggested I go because it'd be a good way to let everyone know I'm a friend of the pack.”
“That's a good idea,” Caleb agreed. “So why don't we go to the arcade first, and then I'll take you to the meeting if you want.”
“Sounds good,” she whispered, just stifling a yawn. “And just to be sure, you don't mind if I stay with you tonight, right?”
Looking down, he saw that her eyes were already closed, and leaned to kiss the top of her head, then removed her glasses to place on the bedside table, promising, “I'd just follow if you left.”
She smiled, nuzzling her cheek against him, and damn, it felt better than words could describe.
For the first time in years, Caleb wasn't burdened by irrational fear, so happy with the outcome he almost couldn't contain himself. He'd always grieve Fiona's passing—nothing would ever change that. He'd made a terrible mistake with her, and maybe he didn't deserve to have Emily there with him, either.
But she'd made her own choices, and came to hi
m because she wanted to see where things went. Now, she was cuddled into his side with full knowledge of the truth about what he was, and he could barely process what it meant.
So deserve it or not, Caleb wouldn't give it up for anything, and this time, he made a new promise in moving forward.
I'll never let her regret this decision.
Chapter 22
Emily loved her photography career, and wouldn't give it up for anything. But she would've dropped work in a heartbeat the following day if it meant getting off early and going out with Caleb.
Yet time unsurprisingly dragged on, and she expected no less when getting out of bed was a chore in itself. Emily woke that morning with two thick arms wound around her and Caleb's warmth at her back, so comfortable she accidentally fell back to sleep for another hour.
Even after motivating herself to get up, Caleb didn't make it easy for her to leave. Instead, the playful lupine followed her all the way out to the car, stealing kisses left and right before finally letting her drive away.
And Emily was cursed with stupid-grin-syndrome every time she thought about it.
But the wait for the workday to end was worthwhile—going to the arcade was a blast. There wasn't a single game the couple didn't play at least once, her favorite being a racing game, and not because she was any good at it. In fact, Emily pretty much sucked and crashed her car into every single obstacle the track threw at her.
Yet the machine possessed a covered booth that allowed her to reward Caleb with kisses for winning—and she had absolutely no problems losing when he was so damned good at making out.
At the end of their date, Caleb turned in his tickets and let her pick out whatever prizes she wanted. So Emily used the points to snag a set of fuzzy red dice, a rubber ball, and the grand prize?
A key chain with a wolf emblem attached.
Exiting the arcade with Caleb's arm around her back, she held it up and said, “This is for you.”
“Me?” he asked, taking it to inspect with a grin. “That why you wanted the one with a wolf?”
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